Our Work/Empower Communities

Empower
communities

Conservation lasts only if it creates genuine value for the people who live alongside the reserve.

Priority 04 of the
The Integrated
Restoration Model
01Rebuild Ecosystems02Protect Wildlife03Sustainable Finance04Empower Communities← All four priorities
What we are doing

Conservation in Karamoja will only last if it creates genuine value for the people who live alongside the reserve. Benefit must be felt, not promised.

The co-management partnership is committed to building benefit pathways that link conservation success directly to community well-being: through employment, skills, livelihoods, and improved coexistence with the wildlife at the boundary.

The people around Pian Upe are not obstacles to conservation. They are its most essential partners.

Community members meeting beside the reserve

On the ground, in numbers

Population
140,000

estimated number of people living within 15 km of the reserve

one figure represents 10,000 people
Coexistence
54%

of households report that human wildlife conflict has a high impact on their lives

Livelihoods
75%

of neighbouring communities primarily make their income from agriculture

Poverty
65%

of households in Karamoja live in absolute poverty

Education
1,300

school children benefiting from the education project

Water
6

community boreholes constructed at boundary villages

Progress so far
✓School engagement programme running across 32 surrounding schools, with 1,300 children hosted on reserve visits and game drives
✓Boreholes constructed at boundary villages, improving water access for 345 households
✓Human–wildlife conflict mitigation protecting crops and livestock at the boundary see Threats to the Landscape for the scale of the problem
✓Managed grazing pilot framework agreed and ready for implementation (2026) shared with Rebuild Ecosystems
✓First SAPA (Social Assessment for Protected Areas) baseline assessment conducted for Pian Upe
Children and women drinking from a new community borehole
A new community borehole comes into use at a boundary village.
How we measure · SAPA

Well-being is the metric.

Reported as honestly as the wildlife counts.

2025 baseline
31% positive
31% negative
38% neutral

The opportunity: 69% of neighbours still to win over, one visible benefit at a time.

~40%note improved well-being over 3 yearsThe opportunity: momentum this early means the pathways are working.
50%+the 2030 target for positive impactThe opportunity: cross it, and the co-management case is made for a generation.
Alongside the reserve

The people this is for

Communities in the districts surrounding Pian Upe, where conservation has to earn its place.
Beekeeping enterprise beneath Mount Kadam
Groundnut processing, a growing village enterprise
New boreholes bring water to reserve-edge villages
Rainwater storage at new community facilities
The people conservation must serve
Community tourism: the Zebra Cultural Group
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